Crown Princess vs. HAL Westerdam for Alaska cruise

DH and I have only sailed on Carnival. Since we are going without kids this time, we're looking for something more "elegant" for Alaska.

We're looking at HAL and Princess. I'm trying to find out what the main differences are. Any insight? More specially I'm trying to compare:

~Food (both in MDR and speciality restaurants). This is a big one.

~how formal are the two lines? Again... we are used to the casualness of Carnival, so we want to be prepared whichever line we choose.

~What is entertainment like? We're not big night owls, but would like something to do in the evening after dinner. I noticed Princess has comedy acts. Does HAL?

~Any big differences in the cabins? We'll have a balcony.

~What makes HAL or Princess stand out from other cruise lines?

Thanks so much! :D

DH and I have only sailed on Carnival. Since we are going without kids this time, we're looking for something more "elegant" for Alaska.

 

We're looking at HAL and Princess. I'm trying to find out what the main differences are. Any insight? More specially I'm trying to compare:

 

~Food (both in MDR and speciality restaurants). This is a big one.

 

~how formal are the two lines? Again... we are used to the casualness of Carnival, so we want to be prepared whichever line we choose.

 

~What is entertainment like? We're not big night owls, but would like something to do in the evening after dinner. I noticed Princess has comedy acts. Does HAL?

 

~Any big differences in the cabins? We'll have a balcony.

 

~What makes HAL or Princess stand out from other cruise lines?

 

 

Thanks so much! :D

Alaska just isn't "elegant". You also would find far more similarities with Carnival, in Alaska than the differences you are wrongly assuming. Demographics are the same- with the "same" type of passenger on all lines. :)

Being the ship is what is important to you, I suggest you post this ship information, on the HAL and Princess site, next month when the Alaska cruise season opens. Ask for someone to scan a daily sheet of both. Read the trip reports.

I've sailed both lines- I don't find any differences in food. There is such a wide variety- that anyone should find something to their liking. ALL the lines have cut back, very subjective anyway about likes/dislikes.

I haven't done formal nights in over 10 years- :) but all 3 lines have them, with simply, just about anything acceptable.

Any big differences in the cabins? We'll have a balcony.

You might want to check on the Princess board regarding shower stall vs shower/tub combo on the Crown. IIRC at one time on Princess you had to have a pretty high-category cabin to get a tub/shower combo instead of just a shower stall.

If you want to use Room Service, compare the menus on each line, too. The last time I looked the Princess Room Service menu was quite limited in comparison to HAL's Room Service menu.

~What makes HAL or Princess stand out from other cruise lines?

 

 

Thanks so much! :D

Glacier Bay. Just my opinion but in Alaska, the only thing is the itinerary, ports and port arrival and departure times. Anything that occurs on the ship is irrelevant.

DON

Alaska just isn't "elegant". You also would find far more similarities with Carnival, in Alaska than the differences you are wrongly assuming. Demographics are the same- with the "same" type of passenger on all lines. :)

 

Being the ship is what is important to you, I suggest you post this ship information, on the HAL and Princess site, next month when the Alaska cruise season opens. Ask for someone to scan a daily sheet of both. Read the trip reports.

 

I've sailed both lines- I don't find any differences in food. There is such a wide variety- that anyone should find something to their liking. ALL the lines have cut back, very subjective anyway about likes/dislikes.

 

I haven't done formal nights in over 10 years- :) but all 3 lines have them, with simply, just about anything acceptable.

Wow, that sure helps tremendously. :rolleyes:

Glacier Bay. Just my opinion but in Alaska, the only thing is the itinerary, ports and port arrival and departure times. Anything that occurs on the ship is irrelevant.

 

DON

EVERYTHING about the two cruises I'm looking at are the same except for a slight variation in time in ports. Date, itinerary, departure port, price are all the same. Yes, they both include Glacier Bay. :) So I'm comparing each cruise line to see which one would be a better fit for us. Not sure how else to decide.

Either that or flip a coin. :D

EVERYTHING about the two cruises I'm looking at are the same except for a slight variation in time in ports. Date, itinerary, departure port, price are all the same. Yes, they both include Glacier Bay. :) So I'm comparing each cruise line to see which one would be a better fit for us. Not sure how else to decide.

Either that or flip a coin. :D

Both also have ship naturalists, with HAL, sometimes, having a "desk" set up, with hours for 1-1 trip planning. Princess pretty much limits you to the official programs, or shore excursion staff, more often in my experience.

Both lines are excellent and I wouldn't hesitate taking either one. If its important to you, you might want to consider that the Crown Princess is a much larger ship than the Westerdam (3080 pax vs 1,916). Also, you might want to check out CruiseTimetables.com to compare how many and which other ships would be in each port with you.

We compared all cruise lines and all routes for our May Alaska trip. Then narrowed down to those SAME two ships, Crown and Westerdam.

We then made a side by side list of pros and cons for each ship.

Bottom line, we booked HAL.

Sitka sounds like a better port than Skagway, we like the slightly smaller size ship, HAL had cooking demos and classes and retractable roof over pool.

Either way, enjoy the planning and your cruise!

We have been on both Princess & HAL and prefer HAL. In fact, we have been on Crown Princess twice. We went on Crown Princess November 2014 when there were norovirus outbreaks causing delays, but don't know if it is under control now. There was a fire alarm at 2:00 a.m. one night with no announcements as to the status and an actual fire the last sea day. We could not get an assigned table in the dining rooms on Crown Princess and had to wait in line for a long time but have had open dining on HAL with no problems in being seated immediately. The entertainment on HAL is more music based than glitz. We enjoy the small lounges on HAL over the big ones on Princess, especially the piano bar. Our Alaska cruise in May will be on the Westerdam.

We are going on 500 sailing days with both lines, have had many great voyages on both. There are differences between them, some pretty subtle. The cruise experience, in general, on the major lines is changing fairly rapidly so we see diminution occurring with both these companies as well. We also see some positive recent developments. As for Alaska, HAL and Princess together virtually control large resort ship cruising here, where they own hotels, lodges, and tour companies. Due their longevity up here they both enjoy priority sailing in Glacier Bay under the NPS rules. Not long ago Carnival Corp. consolidated its Alaska operations into the "Holland America Group" along with Princess, HAL, Seabourn, and P&O Australia under the direction of new CEO Stein Kruse who for many years was CEO of HAL.

For us it is like "splitting hairs" when comparing the two. Kruse recently announced the smallest vessel on HAL will eventually be about 100,000 gross tons and on Princess 140,000. So they are both going to operate only mega-ships. For right now though we are sticking with Princess until HAL's balcony smoking issue resolves.

EVERYTHING about the two cruises I'm looking at are the same except for a slight variation in time in ports. Date, itinerary, departure port, price are all the same. Yes, they both include Glacier Bay. :) So I'm comparing each cruise line to see which one would be a better fit for us. Not sure how else to decide.

Either that or flip a coin. :D

A balcony cabin - on HAL you will have a loveseat or a sofa - on Princess all you get is a chair. You have to upgrade to a mini-suite to get at least a loveseat.

A balcony cabin - on HAL you will have a loveseat or a sofa - on Princess all you get is a chair. You have to upgrade to a mini-suite to get at least a loveseat.

We always get a balcony cabin on both HAL and Princess. When comparing HAL and Princess it appears to me that HAL never offers the equivalent of a simple "balcony" cabin like Princess does. HAL only offers the "Vista Suites" or "Veranda Staterooms" which are essentially similar to the Princess "mini-suite". In those, Princess offers a full size sofa bead. On Princess we go for the mini-suites and HAL the equal thereof. Generally speaking, on Princess our cabins are somewhat larger than those on HAL and have larger sofas.

We always get a balcony cabin on both HAL and Princess. When comparing HAL and Princess it appears to me that HAL never offers the equivalent of a simple "balcony" cabin like Princess does. HAL only offers the "Vista Suites" or "Veranda Staterooms" which are essentially similar to the Princess "mini-suite". In those, Princess offers a full size sofa bead. On Princess we go for the mini-suites and HAL the equal thereof. Generally speaking, on Princess our cabins are somewhat larger than those on HAL and have larger sofas.

And the price for a mini-suite on Princess is considerably more than the Veranda Oceanview Stateroom on the Westerdam. I'd rather spend less money on HAL and still get a loveseat or sofa. YMMV.